Home News Dynamic CTOs: Discovering the 30 Mavericks Revolutionizing the Startup World.

Dynamic CTOs: Discovering the 30 Mavericks Revolutionizing the Startup World.

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In the ever-evolving world of startups, technology reigns supreme where technological innovation has a crucial figure: the Chief Technology Officer, or CTO. But who are these individuals shaping the future of their industries, and what responsibilities do they shoulder? Modern CTOs are not merely technologists but visionaries, strategists, and catalysts for change. Responsible for steering the technological direction of their organizations, these CTOs play a crucial role in shaping the future of their industries. Today, we spotlight 30 exceptional CTOs redefining the boundaries of possibility. These visionaries are not just tech experts but strategic leaders, problem solvers, and architects of disruptive solutions. 

1. Nikhil Mittal

Company: Zepto
Founded Year: 2020
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian
Institute of Technology, Dhanbad.

Nikhil has built out a high-performing engineering team from scratch and helped Zepto raise $200 million, making it the first unicorn in 2023. Nikhil spearheaded the creation of an Automated Video Interview platform, iview.ai, enhancing hiring efficiency. Formerly at
Goldman Sachs crafted consumer-centric products like the Apple Card. and have also led
A 200-strong team now manages Zepto’s growth and is working to leverage Zepto.

2. Devesh Mishra
Company: PhysicsWallah
Founded Year: 2016
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Bachelor of Computer Application at Fairfield Institute of
Management & Technology, Master of Computer Application at Management jobs, and
careers.

He is an Expert in devising impactful business strategies with robust IT infrastructures.
Achievements include reaching 10M+ students and 50K+ live class users at Penpencil,
pioneering India’s most cost-effective VOD( Video On Demand) and live class setup, and
leading in video processing and security projects. Secured 2nd place at NPC’s Hackathon
and is Proficient in NodeJS, GO, PHP, Python, Java, and more, with extensive experience
in cloud platforms and cutting-edge technologies.

3. Suyash Katyayani
Company: Purplle
Founded Year: 2011
Position: Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology,
Dhanbad.

Suyash, an IIT Kharagpur graduate and seasoned tech enthusiast, is the driving force behind Purplle’s tech stack. With a knack for problem-solving and a penchant for product
engineering, he drives growth and innovation for the company. Formerly at Onmobile Global, he founded Vidyacenter.com. His mantra: ‘Get it up. Keep it Running. Optimize. Scale. Repeat.’

4. Dhruva Shree Agrawal
Company: OXYZO
Founded Year: 2016
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied (BTech) Computer Science at the Indian Institute of
Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi.

Dhruva Shree Agrawal has 15 years of product design expertise, excelling in end-to-end
application delivery and strategic planning. He is a Java specialist who thrives in crafting scalable systems and fostering high-performing teams. With a keen interest in solving business challenges at scale, his leadership ensures optimal resource utilization and team cohesion, which is readily shown in his achievements.

5. Ramanshu Mahaur
Company: Spinny
Founded Year: 2015
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied (BTech) Computer Science at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi.

Ramanshu Mahaur, the founder of Spinny and Karmabite, previously served as a technical
staff member at Adobe. Spinny has secured $283 million in Series E funding, spearheaded
by ADQ from Abu Dhabi, Tiger Global from New York, and Avenir Growth. This investment
propelled it into the unicorn club, marking a valuation of $1 billion or more. With a robust skill set that includes Python, C, Java, Algorithms, Web Development, and more, Ramanshu
Mahaur contributes valuable insights to the industry.

6. Bhanu Pratap Singh
Company: Share Chat

Founded Year: 2015
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied( Btech) Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur India.

Bhanu Pratap Singh, ShareChat’s Co-founder & CTO, leads the tech team, driving innovation for an easy user experience. His expertise in tech solutions and machine learning, along with his coder’s team, Bhanu and his team, developed ShareChat. ShareChat, founded in 2015, addresses language diversity with 15 Indic languages, aiming to cater to those uncomfortable with English. In an interaction with Entrepreneur India, Bhanu Pratap Singh, co-founder and chief technology officer of ShareChat, said.

7. Shantanu P.
Company: Apna
Founded Year: 2019
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied (BTech) Electronic at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Shantanu, a seasoned technology leader with 26 years of experience, excels in scaling
businesses and driving digital transformation. As CTO of Apna, he navigates the startup to a large-scale transition. Instrumental in Walmart’s e-commerce transformation and PayU
India’s growth, he’s renowned for building high-performing teams and leading unicorns to
decacorn growth journeys.

8. Raghav Chandra
Company: Urban Company
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied (B.S.) Computer Science and Engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley

Raghav Chandra’s goal at Urban Company is to revolutionise home services globally,
empowering millions of professionals. The company streamlines bookings for beauty,
plumbing, cleaning, painting, etc., through partnered individual services professionals (ISPs). He has created a unified tech ecosystem with significant data intelligence to handle large datasets. While working on the safety of the customers and professionals, conducting the

verification tests for safety assurance. In five years, the company aims to enlist 1 million
professionals.

9. Sanjeev Barnwal
Company: Meesho
Founded Year: 2015
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Bachelor of Technology (BTech), Electrical Engineering at the
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Sanjeev Barnwal leads Meesho’s tech endeavours, focusing on demand-supply matching,
trend prediction, and adaptive video streaming. His data-driven approach ensures optimised experiences, even on unstable internet connections. Sanjeev also worked at Sony in Japan. He was a part of the core tech team that developed the company’s digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) and cyber-shot cameras. Today, at Meesho, building great tech remains
his passion.

10. Sajal Gupta
Company: Blinkit
Founded Year: 2013
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Bachelor of Technology (BTech), Computer Science at the Manipal Institute of Technology.

Sajal Gupta, CTO of Blinkit, is responsible for front-end technology initiatives. He drives innovation in logistics
and delivery, ensuring seamless operations and exceptional customer experiences in the
e-commerce sector. He worked under Zomato as an engineering manager and software
development engineer. Now, he is contributing to Blink to provide satisfactory services and
platform execution.

11. Govind Soni
Company: Peepalco
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Co-Founder & Group (CTO) Chief Technology Officer

Education: Studied Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Computer Engineering at the
Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.

Govind Soni, co-founder and CTO of Peepalco, champions financial equality. He endeavours to democratize access to resources through innovative solutions, making
financial opportunities equally accessible to all. He is also a Co-founder of CoinSwitch, the latest crypto app with over 19 million users. He developed CRUXPay to simplify the
user experience using cryptos and enable users to smooth transactions.

12. Vivek Srivastava
Company: CarDekho
Founded Year: 2007
Position: Chief Product & Technology Officer
Education: studied (BTech) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, (MBA),
Finance, Entrepreneurship at the MIT Slon School of Management.

Vivekak, as CarDekho’s CPTO, led 250+ teams across Product Engineering, AI/ML, and Data. Science & Analytics, Web, Android & iOS Apps, and Product Management & Strategy, serving all business units.

13 Vishal Shah
Company: Digit Insurance
Founded Year: 2016
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Bachelor of Business Administration – (BBA), Management at
the Tamil Nadu Jobs.

Vishal is an innovator who drives IoT, ML, cloud, big data, and digital innovation. He Orchestrated tech solutions for business transformation, yielding multi-million cost savings. Efficiently managed IT operations for reliability and scalability. Previously, he worked in Bajaj Allianz for 15 years as a Vice president, Head -of IT Infrastructure and Business, Database manager, Datawarehouse Developer and Software Developer, he managed 140 IT professionals and catered to both customer and company interests.

14. Ankit Maheshwari

Company: Innovaccer
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Chief Technology Officer & Founding Team Member
Education: Studied B.Tech, Computer Science at the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical
University.

Ankit, as CTO and President of India Operations at Innovaccer, spearheads engineering and
R&D, crafting a revolutionary data platform for global healthcare. His strategic expertise
fortifies the organisation’s footing and is recognized globally for tech innovation. Covered by esteemed publications.

15. Nakul Aggarwal
Company: BrowserStack
Founded Year: 2011
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Nakul Aggarwal, Co-founder and CTO of BrowserStack, drives technology strategy. A serial
entrepreneur, he founded BrowserStack in 2011 to revolutionise cross-browser testing.
Leading by example, he fosters a customer-centric culture, scaling the platform to 2M daily
tests for 50K+ clients globally.

16. Fahim Ahmed
Company: Polygon
Founded Year: 2018
Position: Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science at the
Ahsanullah Biggyan O Projucti Bishwabiddalaya.

Fahim Ahmed, Polygon’s Co-founder and CTO, engineered success by pioneering innovative
solutions. His strategic leadership and technical expertise enabled Polygon to be established
as a prominent player in its domain. He leads a team of over 40 people while offering
variables of services such as Hyperlocal service solutions, product management, Front-end
development, web development, UX/UI design, etc.

17. Deepak Diwaker
Company: MIndtickle
Founded Year: 2011
Position: Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied (B.Tech)., Computer Science & Engineering at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay.

Deepak, co-founder of Mindtickle, leads technology and operations, steering strategic
direction and ensuring service reliability. With a background at PubMatic, he collaborates
globally to achieve Mindtickle’s objectives, leading Mindtickle to have an Annual Recurring
Revenue (ARR) of about $25-30 million.

18. Hemesh Singh
Company: Unacademy
Founded Year: 2015
Position: Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied B. Tech at the Motilal Nehru National Institute Of Technology.

Hemesh Singh, Co-founder and CTO of Unacademy, spearheads technology innovation.
Unacademy, India’s largest learning platform, offers diverse courses educators teach.
With millions of learners, it empowers IAS aspirants students nationwide, revolutionising the education landscape with accessible, personalised learning experiences. Unacademy joined the unicorn club in 2020 and is presently valued at $3.4 billion.

19. Bhupendra Singh Dhami
Company: Lenskart
Founded Year: 2010
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Integrated Master, Mathematics and Computing at the Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur

As the leader at Lenskart.com, Bhupendra drives and oversees various tech teams.
Consumer Apps, Store Backend, Data Science, and Analytics. He champions the transition to Headless backend architecture and ensures data privacy compliance.

20. Akhil Gupta
Company: NoBorker
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Dual Degree (B.Tech + M. Tech) in Chemical Engineering at Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Akhil is the founder and Chief Tech and product Officer at NoBroker. He has spearheaded the development of an algorithm-based, intermediary-free real estate platform, driving explosive customer growth and securing $20 million in funding from top investors.

21. Kaushal Shubhank
Company: Roposo
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: B. Tech, Computer Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

As Co-founder and CTO of Reposo, Kaushal looks after the technological development,
manages software teams, ensures application scalability and security, drives product
innovation, and align tech decisions with company objectives.

22. Ankit Sobti
Company: Postman
Founded Year: 2012
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied M.B.A., Strategy & Leadership at the School of Business and
Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.

As the Co-founder and CTO of Postman, Ankit leads technical innovation, product
development, and platform scalability. He ensures alignment with the company vision and
oversees the continued growth and success of the API platform.

23. Kailash Nadh
Company: Zerodha

Founded Year: 2010
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Artificial Intelligence & Computational
Linguistics at Middlesex University.

Kailash is a hobbyist software developer who leads technology at Zerodha, pioneering the
development of a capital markets technology and product stack since 2013. He also
oversees the technological infrastructure and innovation to support brokerage-free equity
investments, retail and institutional broking, and trading in currencies and commodities.

24. Amit Sharma
Company: DreamX
Founded Year: 2018
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: studied Btech in Information Technology at Mumbai University, Mtech
in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, MBA at the Santa Clara
University Leavey School of Business.

As the CTO of Dream Sports and Head of DreamX, he brings over a decade of experience in
large-scale distributed systems from companies like Yahoo! and Netflix in the US. With an
MSc in Computer Science and an MBA, he claims to be a Manchester United fan, fitness
enthusiast, and avid traveller.

25. Shan Krishnasamy
Company: FYVA
Founded Year: 2023
Position: Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer.
Education: BE, Mechanical at the TPGIT, Vellore

Shan Krishnasamy was Freshdesk’s co-founder and CTO, who empowers businesses

with multichannel support solutions and is responsible for the company’s technology
roadmap. He is the co-founder and CTO of Fyva, which offers a personalized shopping experience, blending personal stories with sustainable practices. Their e-commerce platform brings global fashion at the right price, mitigating the impact of
the grey market. Shop smart with Fyva.

26. Madhusudhan Rao
Company: Swiggy
Founded Year: 2014
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Btech., Computer Science at the Visvesvaraya Technological
University

Madhusudhan Rao, with 20+ years at Swiggy, CommerceIQ, and Amazon, rose to CTO at
Swiggy in 2023, overseeing Consumer and FinTech products. At CommerceIQ, he led teams
from pre-revenue to multimillion-dollar success.

27. Saurabh Tiwari
Company: Policybazaar
Founded Year: 2008
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur, (M.Tech) in Computer Software Engineering at the National University of Singapore

A versatile leader with software pre-sales, product management, and

development expertise. Skilled in defining product roadmaps, creating marketing assets, and working with global customers. Proficient in Distributed Agile Product Development and technical aspects like SOA and OOAD.

28. Suvonil Chatterjee
Company: OLA Electric
Founded Year: 2017
Position: Chief Technology & Product Officer
Education: studied B.E., Electronics at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Suvonil Chatterjee, CTO of Ola Electric, spearheads transformative initiatives in sustainable
mobility. With a wealth of experience, he drives innovation in electric vehicle technology,
shaping Ola Electric’s vision to revolutionize transportation and reduce the carbon footprint
for a greener future.

29. Pankaj Kumar
Company: Moglix
Founded Year: 2015
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied B.Tech at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Pankaj served Moglix for more than eight years; during his time, he took control of
technology strategy, digital transformation, product development, data analytics, IT
infrastructure, team leadership, and partnerships to drive innovation and enhance B2B
procurement experiences.
30. Saahil Kamath
Company: Eltropy
Founded Year: 2022
Position: Chief Technology Officer
Education: Studied Researcher Artificial Intelligence at the Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), Completed Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & Electronics and
Communications Engineering at the PES University.
Saahil, Eltropy’s Head of AI, led Marsview.ai Inc. before its acquisition. Recognized for AI
innovation, he shapes product strategy and mentors startups. Also, I am a skilled martial artist competing internationally for Team India.
The Top 30 Under 40 CTOs highlighted in this article exemplify the dynamic and visionary
leadership driving technological innovation in the startup ecosystem. From spearheading
progressive initiatives to revolutionising industries, these CTOs demonstrate
technical expertise, strategic foresight, and an unwavering commitment to pushing
the boundaries of possibility. As they continue to lead with ingenuity and resilience, they
serve as beacons of inspiration for aspiring technologists and entrepreneurs alike,
embodying the spirit of innovation and transformation in the ever-evolving world of startups.

Disclaimer:

We inform you that the information provided is informative, not financial advice. Ranking of CTOs isn’t an endorsement. Additional worthy CTOs exist. Data accuracy may vary based on publicly available data at the time of writing. The author disclaims liability for any
consequences.

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